"The Alamo," the biggest movie ever made in Texas, won't be here for Christmas. The film's Dec. 25 release date has been scrapped because the movie isn't ready. Its new opening date is Easter weekend 2004, which knocks it out of this year's Oscar race and raises questions about the quality of the $80 million film, which was shot in and around Austin this year.
Disney Studios is allowing director John Lee Hancock more time to reshape the historical epic, which has received mixed to negative responses from test audiences in Los Angeles. Complaints range from the film's three-hour and 10-minute length to bad acting.
"I set the bar very high, both for myself and the finished product," Hancock said in a statement issued by Disney. "Post production on an epic ensemble piece takes time and no deadline, no prestige release date, no awards season is worth more to me than the movie being fantastic."
"The Alamo," starring Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett and Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, was filmed from January to June this year in Austin and at Reimer's Ranch in Dripping Springs, where a full-scale Alamo compound was built and a massive re-creation of the 1836 battle was staged. Somber if action-packed trailers for the movie have been enticing viewers at local theaters for about two months, boasting a holiday opening.
There is no word if reshoots will be required or if changes to the film will raise its already bulging budget.
Disney and the "Alamo" production office did not return calls for this article, but Hollywood shaker Harry Knowles, who runs the movie Web site Ain't It Cool News from his Austin home, guessed that "less than enthusiastic" comments from test audiences triggered the release date shuffle.
Knowles has read several drafts of the "Alamo" screenplay and provided script notes to the film's original director Ron Howard while the movie was in development and slated to star Russell Crowe. He has not seen the film.
"All the problems with the movie were right there in the script," said Knowles, who ran two harsh reviews of "The Alamo" on his site and has read several other pans.
"They were trying to make the movie everything to everyone as opposed to a solid dramatic piece," Knowles said. "You can tell the story of the Alamo from the Mexican or the Texan side but you can't do both at the same time. You have nobody to root for.
"I was telling them way in advance that it was a bad idea," he said. "Now they have to delay things for four months."
With six main characters, the story quickly lost focus and point of view, and characters went undeveloped, said Knowles.
"My advice to Ron Howard was to never go on the other side of the wall of the Alamo and that Santa Anna should only be represented by the sounds of his trumpet," Knowles said. "The dramatics needed to be intense."
But they are not intense, according to the reviews at Ain't It Cool News.
The battle scenes are "overly arty," wrote a reviewer. "It's a badly directed, shot and edited mess."
The writer, who like most of Knowles' reviewers uses a pseudonym, praised the thunderous sound design and Thornton's muscular depiction of Crockett, but said Quaid's performance is "just pathetic."
"Cliched and melodramatic" is what another reviewer called "The Alamo," adding that it lacks historical accuracy.
With an April release date, Hancock and his crew have bought time during which they can do a number of things to alter the current version of the film, including reshooting scenes or shooting new scenes, adding special effects and restructuring or condensing the story through editing.
Studios traditionally haul out their prestige pictures late in the year to capitalize on the Academy Awards in March. "The Alamo" joined a crowded field of Oscar-chasers such as "The Last Samurai," "Master and Commander" and "Cold Mountain." Pushing the film to April makes "The Alamo" a long shot for even the 2005 Oscars.
"From the test screening reviews the only thing that might have had an Oscar hope was a best supporting actor (nomination) for Billy Bob Thornton, but I think even that was a stretch," Knowles said.
Movie opening dates change all the time but rarely this close to the actual release, especially for an A-list title. In 1997, the opening date for "Titanic" was jostled several times because the special effects took longer than expected. It went on to win a Best Picture Oscar and became the highest-grossing film in history.
At least four film versions of the Alamo story have been made, including John Wayne's famous 1960 version.
Last year "Alamo" director Hancock told the Austin American-Statesman he wanted to make his home state proud with a definitive and accurate telling.
"I'm not even thinking commerciality," said Hancock, who also directed "The Rookie" in Austin. "I'm thinking what is the very absolute best version of this movie so they'll never have to do it again."